


where my heart is

by helsinkibaby



Series: Right Beside Me Around Every Turn [1]
Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Het, Reunion, Romance, mention of canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 11:57:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11943675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Chris returns home from work to find an unexpected visitor in her house.





	where my heart is

**Author's Note:**

> So totally AU and the start of a verse.

When Chris arrives home from work, she doesn't notice that anything is different, not at first. She parks in the same place that always does, opens her gate and walks up her path, slides her key into the keyhole and unlocks her front door. 

That's when she notices it. 

The hall light is on. 

She stares at it stupidly through the crack in the door, thinks back to this morning. And she's sure, because she's careful about these things - you never know when you'll be delayed by a clinic run, or have to stay overnight somewhere after all - that she had shut it off before she left for the base this morning. 

Which means someone has been in her house. But the front door was locked, which means they must have got in some other way, but in Cooper's Crossing, where the walls have ears, surely someone would have seen something or heard something? 

If this had been Sydney or Melbourne, she might have done something differently. But considering that this is Cooper's Crossing, instead of leaving as quietly as she'd come, she tightens her fingers on the handle of her medical bag - a good weight, a useful weapon - and calls out, "Is someone there?" Because seriously, the odds of anyone actually breaking into her house in Cooper's Crossing are slim to none - people usually leave their doors unlocked around here; she's considered an oddball for locking hers each morning. Well, that and other reasons. 

Except that someone has evidently made themselves at home because she hears the creak of her couch as someone rises from it, hears footsteps coming towards the living room door. She tenses, puts her hand on the doorknob and gets ready to run. 

And then the figure comes into the light and everything stops. 

"G'day, Chris."

Tom Callaghan is standing in front of her, looking the same as he has every night in her dreams for the last six months. Wearing dark slacks, a checked shirt and a wary expression, he takes a step closer to her, which is good because she can't move. Another step and she can see that he doesn't look exactly the same - he's thinner, his face more gaunt that she remembers. But he's still Tom, her Tom, and her heart pounds at his unexpected appearance. 

"What are you doing here?" There are so many things, she knows, that she'd dreamed of saying to him when she saw him again: that hadn't been anywhere on the list. But it's all she can come out with, all she can think of to say and his lips twitch with a small smile as he takes yet another step closer to her. 

"I wanted to see you," he says simply. "I've been traveling for most of the last forty eight hours, this was the first place I came." He points over her shoulder at her still open front door. "You still keep your spare key in the same place... I hoped you wouldn't mind if I let myself in." 

Chris takes a deep breath and somewhere finds the wherewithal to say, as she takes a step forward, "If I touch you, am I going to wake up?" And it might sound ridiculous but she knows it's not, because she's had that dream more nights than she cares to remember, has woken up with tears streaming down her face, her body aching for him. 

If the look on Tom's face is anything to go by, he doesn't think it's so ridiculous. "I hope not," he says and then he's reaching for her and at the first touch of his hand on her arm, she is reaching for him too, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him as close to her as she possibly can. Their lips meet and he's kissing her like the world's about to end, lifting her off her feet at the same time as he's walking her back towards the front door which closes with a satisfying thud as their bodies impact against it. 

She'd like to pretend that they made it to the bedroom, or even the couch. But no, when she comes back to herself who knows how much later, she is lying in her hall, Tom's body half on top of hers. Their clothes have been flung who knows where and he's propped himself up on one arm, is running the fingers of his other hand through her hair. 

"God, I missed you," he whispers, leaning down to bring his lips to hers again, more gentle this time and Chris closes her eyes as he kisses her, feels tears start to prickle behind the closed lids. One of those tears breaks free and, when he feels it seep under his fingers, Tom breaks the kiss, frowns as he stares down at her. "Chris?" 

Her hand shakes as she reaches up to cup his cheek. "What are you doing here?" she asks. "When did you get back? Why didn't you tell me? What-"

Any further questions - and there are many more - are cut off when her phone begins to ring. She stops talking, stares at it and she's tempted to let it ring out. But then Chris the doctor takes over from Chris the woman and she taps Tom on the shoulder, wordlessly telling him to move. 

He does, but he's not exactly in agreement with her decision. "Leave it."

"It could be work." She's suddenly remembering a different night, long ago, back at the start of their relationship and she knows what his next objection is going to be, smiles as he says the words. 

"They'd page you..." 

She shoots him a smile over her shoulder as she stands and she grins inwardly as his gaze looks up and down her body, his expression changing from mild exasperation to something entirely different, something heated and intense that makes goosebumps erupt along her skin. 

She still answers the phone. 

"Chris, it's Kate." From the background noise, she's in the pub. "Look, it's probably nothing, but Jerry Hogan is in the pub and he's telling everyone that he saw Tom driving through town today." Chris bites her lip to hide a smile, glances back at Tom and raises one eyebrow. Because of course someone had spotted him, of course they had - this was Cooper's Crossing after all. He must get what she's getting at because he points his finger to his chest, mouths the word, "Me?" and she nods before turning her attention back to Kate. 

"Which is ridiculous," her friend is saying. "I mean, if Tom was coming back to town, he'd tell us, right? But I wanted you to hear it from me instead of being blindsided by Violet or someone in the morning..." 

Chris wants to say thank you, she really does. But it's hard to think of what Kate is telling her and what she should say - it's hard to think of anything at all, really - when Tom comes to stand behind her, his chest flush against her back and he dips his head so that his ear is next to hers. Sure, ostensibly he's doing that so he can hear what's being said, but one of his hands drifting to her hip, making slow circles there, is done purely to distract her, she can tell by the wicked glint she sees in his eyes. And when his other hand pushes her hair back from her neck, when he leans down and presses his lips against the skin there, she can't help inhaling sharply. 

Which is when Kate stops talking. 

"Chris." She says the name slowly, with dawning awareness and several extra syllables. "Is Tom with you right now?" 

She knows there's no point in denying it, just like she knows it won't take Kate long to put two and two together. "Yes." 

A silence of approximately five seconds follows before Kate, with a mixture of shock and amusement, replies, "Then why the hell did you answer the phone?" 

Chris's cheeks flush scarlet and it only gets worse when Tom reaches up and takes the receiver from her. "That's exactly what I want to know." He winks at Chris as he says, "Goodnight, Kate," and hangs up the phone. 

Chris knows she should probably be indignant about that, but instead she finds herself smiling. "You do know," she asks, "that the entire town is shortly going to think that we're up to all sorts here?" 

Tom doesn't blink. "Well then," he says, scooping her up into his arms, ignoring her little squeak of surprise, grinning when her arms automatically go around his neck. "I say let's not disappoint them." 

He carries her to her bedroom, lays her down on the bed and proceeds to make her lose all sense of space and time for the second time that evening and she doesn't know how much later it is when, lying with her head pillowed on his chest, she asks, "You've been travelling for two days?" 

She feels him nod against her head. "Asmara to Singapore, Singapore to Sydney, Sydney to Broken Hill, Broken Hill to here." His fingers trace patterns on her shoulder and she tries to ignore the goosebumps that erupt at his touch. 

"And this is the first place you came?" He nods again, and this time he presses a kiss to the top of her head. "Tom..." Her voice shakes as she asks the next question. "Why are you here? And not just here, here. Why are you back?" 

He sighs deeply, shifts slightly so that he's propped up on one arm, lying on his side, facing her. She misses the warmth of his body immediately and he scoots forward a little so their lower bodies are touching. "I missed you," he says. "I missed this place. And I might have kept on going... I mean, Chris, over there, you have no idea..." His eyes darken and he presses his lips together, looks away for a moment. "They need doctors, there's no doubt about that. So I was willing to put up with the homesickness, told myself I'd get over it, eventually..." 

Chris frowns, reaching out her hand to rest over his heart. "So what changed?"

Tom actually chuckles. "Well, you may or may not know that I got myself a pen pal while I was over there." Chris hadn't known that and she lifted one eyebrow. "Violet," he says and she can't help herself, she laughs. "Oh, you may giggle, but I'm telling you, that woman missed her calling as an author. She has quite the turn of phrase. Every week, I'd get these long letters, filling me in about everything that was going on, all the local gossip, who was doing what with who, how fantastic you are, how the new doctor could never fill my shoes..." He's smiling, they both are, but then his smile fades. "And in the last one... she told me about Gibbo." 

Chris's smile vanishes instantly and tears, not the happy kind, rise up in her throat. "Yeah." Tom grimaces, runs a hand from her shoulder to her elbow and back. Chris doesn't think he's even aware that he's doing it. "Well, I didn't sleep much that night. Kept thinking about all those nights in the house, you and me and Gibbo, him trying not to be a third wheel and failing utterly... and I kept thinking about you. About how you were in that crash with him. How if he weren't half the pilot he was..." He shudders and a chill runs down Chris's spine too. "And somewhere in the small hours, I figured it out... the idea of not having you to come back to... I couldn't live with that." 

Chris nods, something flaring in her heart that feels very like hope. "What are you saying?" 

"I'm saying..." Tom sighs. "I wasn't homesick for Australia. Or Cooper's Crossing, or being Violet Carnegie's dance partner. I was homesick for you." Chris gives a little sob at that, she can't help it, and Tom moves his hand from her shoulder to her cheek. "You're my home, Chris. And once I worked that out, I couldn't stay over there." 

She wills herself not to cry but she doesn't think she's doing a very good job of it. "So you're staying?" 

"Turns out they were considering making this a three doctor base next year; they've just decided to move it forward a few months. And I know I can't expect everything to be the same as it was, but..." 

Chris can't help herself, she actually laughs at that one. A proper laugh, shoulders shaking with the force of it. "Well, I can't exactly play hard to get now, can I?" she asks but he's completely serious. 

"I know I hurt you, Chris. I know I have to earn your trust back. And whatever it takes... I'm willing to do it." 

"Hmmm." Chris winds her arms around his neck, rolls onto her back and pulls him with her. "I'm sure I can think of something you can do to make it up to me..." 

Tom's smile is so bright that it breaks her heart and repairs it all at once. "Does it involve grovelling?" he asks as he begins to kiss a path down along her neck. He'd always had a thing about her neck. "Because I'm very good at grovelling." 

Chris runs her fingers through his hair. "So prove it," she orders. 

And he does.


End file.
